1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an optical component element for the purpose of creating a random division of a beam of spatially coherent radiation into a plurality of different partial beams. The component may be utilized either as a storage medium in an optical data storage device or as a component in an optical system.
2. Prior Art
In holographic data storage systems, storage elements are known which comprise a hologram carrier with a plurality of sub-holograms which are arranged in a pattern and have a large number of bits of information stored in each sub-hologram. Whether the sub-holograms are incorporated in a parallel or serial fashion, the efficiency of each sub-hologram is dependent on the number of bits of recorded data. For example, the total efficiency during reconstruction decreases with an increase in the number of bits of data so that the diffracted effective energy of a laser beam during reconstruction becomes smaller as the amount of stored bits of data is increased.